Re: Rendering Programs
 

3DCanvas seems pretty good, though I must say I am less than impressed with the tutorials. A lot of it's camera controls and object resizing tools will feel vaguely familiar to the Bryce-initated, although like pretty much every other program out there, it lacks Bryce's clean simplicity. Still playing with it though...

Re: Rendering Programs
 

Wow Agent Zero, the image of your ship really looks awsome! Great job! Why won't you stay with Bryce? From reading your Posts, I get the feeling you've been playing with this program for quite some time. And you mentioned that you don't have too much time on your hands. Why take the trouble of learning a completely new program while there is still some room to grow in your old program. I don't want to say that you make bad images, but it's just a kind thought. Please don't take offense of it.

I'm glad I have to money to buy 3DS MAX 7. It costed me (hold on to your socks!!) $1900, but the program is absolutely great. There are so many plugins, tuts and textures available. Like David said it has a very steep learningcurve, but I'm getting better at it. I doubt if it will ever replace SolidWorks as my prime modeling program, but it sure makes sweet renders (of course I use it for more then just a renderer).

Edit:
Wohoo! I gained a rank!!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: Rendering Programs
 

Thanks, Timstone. The only reason I'm thinking of moving away from Bryce, and doing so grudgingly, is that Bryce cannot export to .X, or as far as I can tell, any format that can be converted to .X, which means that I can't make shipsets for Starfury or SE5. Which is a bit of a downer since they've already got me working on SE5's component pics...

Re: Rendering Programs
 

Have you done asearch for custom plugins for Bryce?
One of the first things I searched for when I got max 7 was a plugin to convert to .x. Luckily I found it.

Re: Rendering Programs
 

According to this page you can export Bryce meshes to .X format:
http://brycetech.daz3d.com/gallery/p...t2/export2.gif

Re: Rendering Programs
 

Yup, I know about this, but for some reason anything I import then save as .x does not load in modeler programs. the .x export seems to be bugged. Also the exported model looses any and all texture mapping info even if the original loaded model included this info.

The problem I had has been solved. I found out you can save 'any' bryce object boolene or not simply by grouping, selecting and 'Adding' it to the preset library. (click on the tiny down arrow beside the 'Create' menu and at the bottom of the 'object selections' you will see the 'add' button. click it and any object or group of objects will be added to the current catigory.)

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Rendering Programs
 

Hold up. So you're saying if I group one of my ship models as one object, then Add it to the preset library, I can then open it as a new object and export it to .X as per the website mentioned before? Lemme know if I got that right because I'm away from home and have no access to my Bryce.

Re: Rendering Programs
 

You don't have to save your model as a preset to export it, just hit the 'E'dit function and when the window pops up that allows you to smooth or unsmooth the model, hit Ctrl+D and the save-as window will open, select the file format you want to save as and it will save the model.

But like I said, for the .x format any texture info is disgarded and I have yet to manage to load a .x file exported this way into se5 or starfury. so It just doesn't work.

I mention saving objects built within bryce as presets so that you can then just select then from the presets to include in new scenes.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Rendering Programs
 

Hmmm... Problematic to say the least. Have you had any luck loading a Bryce exported .X file into another modelling program. If I just had to do the texturing in a seperate program, it probably wouldn't be too bad. Might even lead to some interesting results since I've noticed most of the programs I've looked at support adding different textures to different faces, so I'm sure I could come up with something neat. If it works, that is. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Rendering Programs
 

First the only thing I have that allows the loading of .x files is LithUnwrpa and it errors out when loading.. invalid file format.

Second I just found out that Amapi 5.15 is now a free download at..
Amapi.net downloads

I hear it's a very good modeling program, and I like the price, it fits my non-existant budget to a 'T' http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Just thought I'd share this info. I don't know what file formats it supports for import/export but when I get a moment I'll install it and let you know. (if you don't find out on your own first and beat me to the post.)

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif